Breaking into the industry (Panel-talk, 2014)

Reviewed by Robin Kadir at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2014

The “Breaking into the industry”-talk was really one of the more influential talks. Basically because the guys in the panel is not that far away from the beginning, they have just got out of they’re shell, and even though they’ve done shorts here and the reason they were sitting there talking was because they pretty much just released their first real film, which is the step everyone in the business want to take, and they did it in this time, this century, a couple of years ago they were more or less just like us, so it makes the whole thing feel more real and I think that’s why it spoke to a lot of us students in a certain way.

The panel consisted of; Steve Clark, Alex Beh, Mark Hannah, Richie Mehta and Scott Griest. Hosted by our instructor Nico Maestu. Alex and Mark worked together on the new film Warren. Steve worked on Night has settled, Richie on Siddhart and Scott on Bella Vita. Richie, that came from Toronto, originally India were really honest with us. He told us about the gap from wanting to make a film and actually becoming a filmmaker, about his first job producing a film etc. What really caught my attention was when he told us that if you don’t make money on your first film, you’re not going to make a second film. I find this interesting as we’ve always heard from all filmmakers this weak, “Don’t give up”, “One bad movie doesn’t mean it’s over” etc. Of course it’s good to have that attitude but I couldn’t actually believe it, so I like Richie’s style of just being straight up honest and say, if it sucks, you’re done. Pretty much.

The person I found most interesting from this talk was Alex Beh. He talked about that he first off wanted to be an actor and that will always be his first choice and first love, but now that he both produced, directed and written, he likes those things too. It’s the business itself thats most interesting. He said a quote that were really special, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Luck is something most people believe it but has never been proven in every way. I think it’s the same rules as Karma, when you do good things, good things will happen. Not because it’s a over natural power, just because good things will make you feel better and keep your head high, and your much more capable to find things positive up there than if you keep your chin down on the ground, it’s just common sense, but to hear that quote put two and two together.

Really interesting walk and I definitely think this talk is something the film festival should continue to do and keep the target on people who want to become film makers because it’s really inspiring and can be to much assistant.